Gaming and Brain Development, a Dad's perspective

General Discussion
1

During the recent spring break my son ask me to join him and play chess with him on the chess . com app. Its been more than 15+ years since I’ve played chess. Sure, I’ll probably get destroyed my grad student son, but it should be fun. I’m fully expecting to be destroyed because of the massive brain development leap he made in StarCraft. He went from an average player just having a bit of fun to an absolute monster challenge in the span of about 4 months. This major leap in brain development was shown back in 2018 / 2019. He played with his undergrad buddies in his dorm and that time caused an explosion of improvement. When he came home he went from a moderate challenge to destroying me in 1v1. As parents we look forward to those moments when our children make such leaps, big and small, in their brain development.

Fast forward… I lost the first 2 games in the chess app. I decided to change strategies from trying to beat him to making his wins as difficult as possible. No easy wins for him. I’m going to make him work hard. I win the next 4 games. Just in case he might try to go easy on me, I’m not letting up. I’m trying to present the hardest challenge to him at every match. In the latter part of the 7th game, he texts me this:

“Dad are you playing against other people besides me… your chess game really improved really fast”

I replied “nope… I’ve only played against you and did 3 or 4 chess puzzles in the app.”

A few moves later I’ve crushed his advantage and created a weakness in his position. He texts me:

"How are you coming up with this strategy? I didn’t expect the game to get this hard this fast.

Text chain:

Me: I’m just moving the pieces… besides I’ve already won
Son: Ok since you’ve already won give me some tips chess master pops
Me: I’ve already won at being dad… not the game of chess

Checkmate in 4 moves. :rofl:
He’s playing chess. I’m playing dad. My job is growth, development, and build a better man than me. I deliver check mate and text him the following:

Me: You asked for tips… I’m going to get you a book from Amazon. Here is a link to the book cover ==> http://www.gambitbooks.com/bigimg/How_to_Beat_Your_Dad_at_Chess_Big.jpg

ROFL
I showed the cover to your mom and she is laughing her head off.

About 3 hours later he sends me an invite to a video call with him. He is laughing his head off. His room mates and college buddies are laughing. My wife is laughing again which sends her running to the rest room. All the stress of college assignments, projects, and test scores has been wiped away. I now have 3 of my son’s college buddies as challengers in the chess app.

From drawing, story telling, Legos, checkers, chasing the dog in the park, to chess, Warcraft 3, DnD, WoW, SC:Broodwar, Super Mario, the Diablo series, Heroes of the Storm, and back to chess… life is just a game and the task of overseeing growth, brain development, and some laughs from a Dad’s perspective. My wife and I later have a convo:

wife: you know he is going to end up beating you in chess right
Me: of course… I’m developing my little pokemon into a monster
wife: * bursts into laughter *
wife: only you would treat the birth of our son like getting a new video game
Me: its a game… its all character development and brain development while having fun… I’m the quest giver and he has to go on an epic adventure… LoL

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2

Great post. Love that this is with your son but Checkmate in 4 moves? With all due respect there’s not much chess going on if that’s happening

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Its toward the end of the game. For the majority of the game he had control of the center of the board. I turned that position into a series of pins and mobility blocks that left poor choices available. Small mistakes end up being costly as material is consumed and defenders are removed. I’m no chess Wiz which explains why it was better for me to just play dad and give him a steady stream of challenges to make him think and adapt.

I ran the analisys of the 7th game and the analysis algorithm said some of my moves were poor or questionable. It was because I did not immediately eat or sacrifice a piece. Those were points where a defender was dislodged during an exchange or I created situations where he would not be able get his pieces to a square in time to defend. I also purposefully delayed castling to keep him guessing and/or scheming on trapping my king in the center.

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4

In HS, I check mated someone in 4 moves. It was great.

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5

Its called the Scholars Mate and usually works when playing against 4 year olds.

6

This reminds me of a fb post rather than having to do with the diablo genre.

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Regardless, it’s a positive gaming thread, so I’m fine with it. If we kept this forum strictly by the book, it’d be dead, or you’d have the same person spamming it with long-winded threads that nobody reads.

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The rules still stands : it needs to be diablo related, not about family time and “brain development”…

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As mentioned, if we did that, this place would be dead.

I’d much rather have this place active with positive threads than see the same trolls and their alts having discussions with themselves or a dead forum.

The OP isn’t hurting anybody, let him be.

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Rules are rules. I really do not care if someone finds this post positive, imo. I see it as a fb brag post. If you wanna post stuff like this and like it, go on Reddit. I’ve already reported it, but most likely nothing happens since nobody at this department is doing anything.

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If you really want to be “that guy”, more power to you.

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I am. I don’t bend, like others to be social accepted.

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It’s not so much about bending. I know what you mean in that regard. Those guys out there who constantly need social validation from random people on the internet, likely because they’re an outcast in real life, but this is more in line with “it’s not a huge deal, let it go”.

Kind of like calling the police on your neighbor because their grass is 5" long when the city ordinance says no more than 4.5". The question begs “Are you really that bored?”

14

Just like cheater thread, I can’t see why someone can break the rules simply due to a “family positive thread”, while others got their comments / post deleted.
Again, rules are there for a reason, most likely nothing happens, just like cheaters. But I still see no reason for this to be here. End of this.

15

Cheating not only breaks the rules, but can and has affected others in a negative way. Creating an off-topic thread doesn’t hurt anyone. If anything, it’s positive for this place because it keeps the forum alive.

If you feel a thread or post is a violation, just flag it and move on. Most people who post to say they reported/flagged someone are only ever doing it to get attention, period. Like that one guy who says “have a flag” or some other dumb crap. You’re just trying to stick it to the man at that point.

Also, with that cheater thread, some comments get deleted because they start to funnel down into pure trolling, insulting, etc. Yes, moderation here is very wishy-washy but a little composure goes a long way. If you want to discuss the subject in a forum that has good/fair moderation, I highly recommend another forum.

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Just like you moved on by 1, still commenting, 2, telling me what to do. The irony here is huge.

Nope, telling my opinion is what went on.

Funny, since this post belongs to another forum, not here. Nothing diablo related.
I can write a post about my gaming experience in general. Throw in the word “diablo”, yeah that is simply not cutting it.
I hope this gets taken down.
Ending the discussion here. I know you will reply to this, but keep in mind.
I don’t take orders from anyone. I don’t care about social points either.

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I’m talking directly to you and replying as you are. I didn’t come in a random thread and talk in general to whoever may be listening.

Semantics

I wasn’t ordering you to do anything. I was suggesting to just let it go. You’re crying over spilled milk.

18

JTP,

Just because something triggers a memory of FB post does not mean its not gaming/diablo related. You don’t have to read it or comment on it if you aren’t interested in the topic. There is a post in this forum about a person who died. He was a former Blizzard employee. I don’t see you in that thread complaining about the dead man or about the thread itself.

@Darkness:
I did say in my post:

In the latter part of the 7th game…

So it was not the first 4 moves in the match.

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As mentioned, it’s just like the neighbor who calls the police on you for the most insignificant things, just because they can. Creating problems where there isn’t a problem.

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I agree. My post isn’t hinged on some wordy contentious topic to which he can lob some spit and snot at. With all that grumpiness and negativity I say “calm down… eat some breakfast”.

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